The McMahon Tomlinson Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Lawton provides care to people across southwest Oklahoma through long-term care and their skilled nursing unit -where they provide treatment for those who are just getting out of the hospital but not ready to go home yet. The residents are at the center 24/7, so it’s important to have a full team there to care for them.

Tammy Crosswhite, the director of nurses at McMahon Tomlinson Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, said they have RN’s, LPN’s, CMA’s, and CNA’s all working there.

“Each one of those roles is just as important as the other. We need the Nurses for their expertise, for their assessments that they do,” she said. “And the Certified Medication Aides are responsible for administering medications. Their jobs are busy, they’re interacting with the residents, giving them the medications, and then the Certified Nurse Aides are helping to provide day-to-day custodial care to them.”

She says the CNA’s are the ones who tend to spend the most time with the residents at the center.

“They notice the little changes,” Crosswhite said. “They form relationships with the residents, and they’re in communication with the nurse to let them know the changes that are happening. It’s just so important that they all work as a team.”

But, spending as much time as they’d like with each and every resident has been difficult as they’ve seen a decrease in staff.

“We have ended up in a deficit in our nursing staff,” she said. “The coronavirus hit, and it has affected so many avenues of life, and the workforce is one of them. Nurses have left here to go work in other states, to help out where help was needed, some have left out of fear, and we’ve just had a hard time filling those positions back.”

Crosswhite says they’ve had to reduce the number of residents being accepted into the center due to the changes required by the pandemic and not having enough staff. They want to hire more nurses so they can increase those numbers. But, she says COVID has also impacted nursing schools and CNA programs.

“And so nurses were not being turned out as frequently and certified nurse aides were not being turned out as frequently either, which has added to the deficit.”

McMahon Tomlinson Nursing & Rehabilitation Center is holding a career fair on April 27th from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the center. If you’re the right candidate, they’ll be hiring on the spot. You can also apply online by visiting their website or CCMH’s website.